If you’ve ever called in to Hover customer support, you already know that we pride ourselves on the fact that real people pick up the phone. Hover support reps are smart, friendly and predisposed to help.

The idea of helpful customer support and a friendly and respectful customer / service provider relationship got us (as in Tucows) to thinking: if there’s one industry that could benefit from a little clarity and competition, it’s mobile.

Ting lives the same customer service ideals as Hover. Indeed, the Hover and Ting support staff all share a space, a knowledge base and a desire to help.

Picking a Plan

One key thing that sets Ting apart from others in the mobile space (the “competetive advantage,” one better schooled in the PR arts might say) is in its plans ‒ or rather in the absence of traditional plans.

Rather than weaving voice, text and data together into one big and often overpriced Gordian knot, Ting lets users choose from different buckets from extra small (XS) through XXL for minutes, messages and megabytes. If you want to talk a lot, text a little and turn off data, that’s cool. If you want a little of everything, no problem. If you want a lot of everything, that’s your prerogative.

Contrary to the current mobile thinking, there’s no need to overestimate your usage in order to avoid getting dinged (to put it politely) at the end of the month. If you use more than you thought you would, Ting just bumps you up into the next bucket without penalties or overage charges. If you use less, they’ll drop you down and credit you on your next bill. You pay for what you use.

The catch? You have to buy a Ting device. Ting is actively working on allowing BYOD customers to join in the fun but for the time being, no dice. Fortunately, there are some pretty sweet devices to choose from.

Grab your current wireless bills and hit the Ting bill calculator to see how your current plan stacks up and whether Ting can save you some money on mobile.

It seems Ting is an idea whose time has come and the media is taking notice. Here are a few clippings of all the nice things people are saying about Ting.